Experienced showmen

Monday night of the fair was the open show for hogs. Nathan had the privilege of showing two pigs and Darren got to show one. I knew that Nathan would be an old pro at it, but I was a little nervous about Darren. It was only last summer that he wasn't quite so afraid of pigs. He is kind of skittish around big animals and still will not get too close to a calf (baby steer).

I did not see it happen, but somehow Darren fell down and looked like he was about to be trampled by several hogs. He was on the other end of the ring so I was pretty nervous that he would get up crying. The ring men and judge came over to help him up and he just kept on showing his pig like this kind of thing happened everyday. The spectators at that end of the ring even clapped for him when he got up like you would do for an athlete after they were injured on the field. When he was done showing that pig, he stated that he wanted to show another one. No one placed, but for the boys, showing pigs is all the enjoyment they need. For my Dad seeing the grand kids show pigs is an enjoyment, but I think he likes the satisfaction of having them place.

Then last evening Nathan competed in Pee-Wee showmanship. He was pretty decent at showing pigs when we walked them at the farm, so I thought that he would do pretty decent at showmanship. I reminded him before he went into the ring that the pig was supposed to stay between the judge and himself. He forgot so he kept walking in front of the pig, blocking the pig which is a big no-no in showmanship. The kids aren't judged on the shape/condition of the pig, but how well you control him. After the judge picked two winners in the class he called all the other kids to the middle and talked to them for a moment. Then as they walked out, they were handed a trophy. You should have seen Nathan's eyes light up! He was showing it to everyone he knew and even complete strangers. He was so excited to get the trophy. On the way home last night I told him that he had to write a thank you note to the Pork Producers because they were the ones that donated the trophy. That put a damper on his spirits, but he acted like it was well worth it. He even asked me if the other kids had to write thank you notes too.

A funny...

As we were going past the Copeland/Emerson plant last night on the way to the fair, I pointed out the place to Nathan and told him that is where his aunt Stacey is working over the summer. Nathan looked at the guard shack and asked in a incredulous voice, "She has to pay to go to work?"

I guess when he sees that type of guard shack it is at the entrance of a zoo or something and that is where we pay for parking so it is a logical conclusion in his mind that she would have to pay to get inside the gates.

Monday randomness

Justin has gotten a new tooth on bottom that he likes to use by biting. He bit me on the leg yesterday. He is also walking about 75% of the time. He is so close, but he knows that he can get somewhere faster by crawling than he can walking. He will have been the oldest of my kids to walk since Darren walked right at 10 months and Nathan started walking a few days before his first birthday.

Both the older two boys, and especially Darren, have been peeing the bed a lot lately. It has gotten so bad that I try to force Darren to wear a pull-up every night. Since it has been so warm, I took their blanket off the bed also. The boys are all over in their bed and the blanket gets wet or peed on more times that I care to wash it. I decided the last time it happened that I was done washing it at least once a week and that the weather was to warm for the blanket anyways. They still have the sheet and their comforter; which are always all kicked off after a few hours anyways.

Nathan and Darren were outside playing with Leslie yesterday and they found a stray cat/kitten. We told them to leave it alone because we didn't know if it was hurt, had a disease and we didn't want it to keep hanging around the house. Apparently this cat/kitten kept following the kids around so of course they started to play with it. It is probably a few months old as it is not full grown and it is all black. They named the cat "Blackie" and wanted to give it a bowl of warm milk and some bread. I said no on the milk and consented to give them the heel on our loaf of bread because it gets thrown away. I now think that we have made a friend because as soon as Bruce opened the garage this morning she/he came running in. When I left later with the boys, Nathan had to catch him/her and hold her while I put the garage door down. I may not be able to resist if the boys ask if they can keep it as he/she is pretty cute & friendly. I just remind myself that I don't want a house pet and hopefully I can resist.

Nathan and Darren are also going to show pigs in the open show at the fair tonight, so I will have to tell everyone how they did. Nathan has been showing pigs for a few years, so I am not worried about him. Darren is another story though.

Corn on the cob

Last night we had our first sweet corn of the season. I ran a cob under cold water for a while so that it cooled down for Justin. When I laid it on his plate he gave me a look like, "What am I supposed to do with this?" As we started eating our ears, he timidly picked it up and started gnawing on the ends. Towards the end of dinner he was an old pro. He was actually holding the ear of corn horizontally and gnawing off the middle of the ear. I think he thought it was great fun!

One-year checkup

J.T. had his one-year checkup today. Everything was normal, and the doctor was not concerned with anything. He did give me a list of things he should be doing and asked me if he was doing everything on the list. One of the tasks was "can stack blocks at least three high." I told him that I think he can do that, but he never gets the chance to. If his brothers are around, he doesn't get much "quiet" time. Either that or they will knock it down before he has a chance to accomplish it.

My peanut weighed in at 22lbs 3oz which put him in the 40th percentile for weight and he measured 30 1/4" long. That put him in the 70th percentile in length. Justin must be a combination of Nathan, who was always off the top of the charts, and of Darren who was usually the middle of the chart. He is growing up so fast!

The big 0-1

My little baby turned 1 on Friday. It is hard to believe that a whole year has gone by. What happened to little boy who I could lay on my bed while I folded laundry and not have to worry about him rolling off. Now when I sit him on my bed, he thinks it is a game. He will crawl from one corner to another and laugh when I chase him to make sure that he doesn't crawly right off the bed. What happened to the boy who could sit in his bouncer for a long stretch of time (20-30 minutes) so that I could hang clothes on the line outside. Now he can't sit still for longer than 20-30 seconds.

It has been an amazing year of discovery, sadness and relief. I love how he exhibits his personality even though it also gets on my nerves at other times. Sometimes I look at Justin and realize that I will not have any more babies, that makes me sad. When someone announces their pregnancy, I have a second of jealousy knowing that I will not be pregnant again. Then the relief comes in two seconds after the sadness because I realize that I do not have to do the middle of the night feedings, mess with the bottles and haul a diaper bag the size of a suitcase in case I need something. I can typically go to Wal-Mart now without a diaper bag; good for me!

The Enforcer

Yesterday at daycare Nathan got caught jumping off the table, so he was forced to write lines as a punishment. He absolutely refused to do it at daycare, so we had to enforce the punishment at home. In typical Bruce fashion, he leaves shortly after I get home so that he can go to the neighbors house so that they can work on Bruce's little trailer. He has had this trailer for about four months, but he decided that tonight it had to be fixed.

I sit Nathan down at the bar, but he is not producing any results. Darren is eating dinner next to him and he keeps picking on Nathan so that is compounding the problem. I make Nathan move to the kitchen table. After about a half hour of a lot of crying and yelling (from both of us), he only has half a sentence wrote of the five that he was supposed to do. I first threaten him with no snacks after daycare or before bed and no desserts. That didn't motivate him so I threaten him with no TV (meaning his shows) for a week. Still no action. I tell him that I am going to call Grandpa Ken. He let out a wail that the neighbors had to hear as he hates to disappoint Grandpa Ken. I finally get feed up and call Grandpa Ken. He is wailing so loud that I can barely hear what is being said on the other end of the phone. Grandpa Ken isn't in the house, so he talks to Grandma Deb. After all that, he still is not writing his lines. I send him to bed while I call Bruce and tell Bruce that I have spent the past hour sitting with Nathan trying to get him to write his lines and I am done as I have had enough. The other two boys need a bath yet, dishes need done and I feel emotionally drained after all that.

Bruce comes home and I let him hoover over Nathan while I give the boys a bath. By the time they were out of the tub 15 minutes later, Nathan was sitting down and writing his lines. Not sure what was said, or promised, but at least he was writing. Bruce decides that he is going to go back over to the neighbors as he only has one line left to write. When Nathan is done, I glance at it but do not sit down to actually read it. Later that evening when Bruce comes home he asks to see the paper. It turns out that Nathan forgot a letter to one of the words and then he completely omitted a word. Bruce gets Nathan to get in there to write another sentence since he messed up, and the whole crying and yelling process starts over again. I tell Bruce to keep his voice down as Justin is in bed and if he wakes him up, Bruce will have to deal with him.

After ten minutes or so, Bruce gives up and says that it is good enough. Nathan is so damn stubborn! I hope this isn't a foreshadowing of all the problems we are going to have with him when he gets into school!

It was like that....

I have a jewelry armoire given to me many, many years ago for a Christmas gift that I still use today. For some reason the boys are fascinated by it. They will open the drawers, try to twist off the knobs, open the sides where my necklaces hang, and just make a nuisance of themselves. Sunday while I was getting ready, Darren keep opening and slamming the sides where my necklaces hang. I finally tell him to get out of my room and go play somewhere else. This is how the conversation goes:

Darren: "I see a necklace on the floor."
Me: "Pick it up and give it to me." I wait while he picks it up. I look at it. "Darren. What did you do?" I show him my necklaces all knotted together.
Darren: "It was like that."

There are two gold, delicate chain necklaces with pendants knotted together into about a 1/2" ball. I forgot that when I took them off I tied them into a big knot. Yeah right!

Get the butter out...

Saturday morning Bruce and I were still in bed when we heard Justin start crying. I rolled over and looked at the clock and realized that it was 7:45 am. I was disappointed that he was up so early since the boys all slept in until at least 9:00 last weekend. Then I started to get a little mad because I figured that one of the other boys ran into the bedroom, woke Justin up and played with him or in the room until their attention span was done then ran out. As we are rolling out of bed, we hear Justin let out another impatient cry. I am mumbling and thinking that he can start to exhibit a little patience.

As I walk into his room, I realize that he somehow managed to wedge his knee in between the slats and it is stuck. I gently try pushing it back thru, but he has it wedged in there pretty good. I call for Bruce and he comes into the room. He pulls on the slats almost to the point of breaking and I manage to push his knee out. Not sure how he managed to get it wedged in there so tight, but he did.

Sunday morning rolls around, and again Justin wakes us up about 8:00. (As you are starting to tell, I am NOT a morning person) I walk into his bedroom and Justin has his leg stuck AGAIN. Luckily it was not wedged in as tight so I was able to pull it out myself.

Boing! Boing!

Remember the inflatable clowns that stand about four foot high and is weighted in the bottom so you could punch them and they would bounce back up? Darren was an inflatable clown Sunday morning.

He managed to shove his skinny little legs in between the two couch cushions up to his knees. He would fall forward on his face while saying "bounce" and then he would get up into a standing position and then fall backwards saying "bounce." The harder Bruce and I laughed, the faster he would go. Bruce and I both said that he was acting like the punching bag clowns. He is definitely our little trouble-maker.

Punishment

Because the boys fight Bruce and myself about going to bed every night, the last few nights we have punished them by telling them they weren't allowed to go outside to play. The older two boys were even invited to spend the day on the farm on Thursday, but they didn't get to do that because they fought bedtime and were talking back. There is always so much going on, and they are afraid that they are going to miss something, but they refuse to go to sleep. Then I have to deal with them in the morning not wanting to get out of bed when it is time for daycare.

We even had two neighbor kids ask to play with our kids, but we told them that the boys were not allowed out of the house since they can't listen. It hardly phased the boys. Instead, they turned my living & dinning room into a farm and now I have farm toys everywhere. Brilliant plan huh?

First kisses

This morning after the boys were ready for daycare, I was holding Justin while the other two boys put their shoes on. I would give him a kiss on the check and kind of nuzzle his neck. When I would stop he would turn his face so that he was looking straight at me and then lean in and press his open mouth against mine. When he was done, he would turn his head to the side again to see what his brothers were doing. I would start kissing his check again and nuzzle his neck. He would again turn his head and give me an open mouth kiss.

It was so precious, but so funny. I was laughing while he was "kissing" me and I think the laughter caused him to continue kissing me for an extended amount of time.

Where in the world is Nathan?

This post reminds me of a game and maybe a show that was popular 15-20 years that my sister used to play all the time. It was called, "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?" (I think that was her last name) This is the newest, most updated version of that game.

We were at the neighbor's house on Saturday night so the kids could play, the adults could visit and we could all watch the town fireworks. Before I knew it, it was 1 am. I took the younger two boys home and put Justin to bed. Darren went to bed, but when I was getting ready for bed he comes running into my room and asks to sleep beside my bed. Since it was late and I was tired, I said that was fine. Fast forward to Sunday morning about 8:00 am. I hear Darren jump up real quick and run around my side of the bed towards to door. He sees Nathan laying on the floor next to Bruce (for the same reasons I mentioned earlier) and does an about face and lays back down on my side of the bed where he falls back asleep for a few more hours.

The same thing was repeated Monday morning with a slight twist. About 7:30 Darren comes running into our room because he couldn't find Nathan. Nathan apparently came into our bedroom sometime during the night, but once Darren seen Nathan, he laid down beside my bed and falls asleep for a few more hours.

Apparently Nathan's presence reassures Darren. It also looks like Darren is afraid that he is going to miss something, so if he wakes up and doesn't see Nathan, he has to go looking for him in case something really fun is going on.

Closer everyday...

Justin is "this close" to walking. Several times over the long Holiday weekend he would walk anywhere from 2 feet to about 6 feet before falling. I think before his birthday in ten days that he will be walking.

Yeah! Sniff, sniff! Hooray! Boo-hoo! Not sure how I feel about my baby taking those precious steps into toddler-hood.

First time...

This past week I did something for the first time that I never intentionally did for any of my other kids. I put Justin in the car and drove around so that he could fall asleep. I am guilty of driving home from somewhere (usually Mom & Dad's house) and continuing to drive around until the kids are asleep if I see that they are sleepy.

I drove him around that night because I put him in bed and he cried for a few minutes and then he must have fallen asleep because I did not hear anything else from him. About a half hour later the boys followed me outside so I could dead-head my flowers and the neighbor drove past in his vintage Trans Am. The boys are yelling, "Cool car!" "Burn the tires off!" and things like that. Which woke Justin up because our windows were open since the weather was picture-perfect. He then cried for a half hour in his crib. So I get him out and he continues to cry. I give him Tylenol and gas medicine as this is not like him. I just get him to stop crying after ten minutes when Bruce walks in. It starts all over again. After listening to him crying for five minutes, I told Bruce to give me his car keys as I was taking Justin for a drive. He, nor any of my other kids, every cried for a hour straight. It gave me new appreciation for my sister Susan and my colic niece.

The only thing I can figure out is that his belly hurt as he had several loose bowel movements over several days and that is not like him. I also suffered from gasterlogical issues for a few days, so I wondered if both of us had a virus of some type. I could feel my intestines cramping and it did hurt.

Loves music

Nathan and Darren share a bed that has a bookcase style headboard. When Nathan was about a year old, Bruce was convinced that Nathan needed a radio for Christmas. So Nathan gets a radio for Christmas. That radio currently rests on the top of the bookcase headboard. The other morning after getting Justin ready for daycare, I put him on the bed and let him crawl around. He immediately goes to the headboard, stands up and turns the radio on. He knew exactly what button to push. He then "dances" a little bit and turns up the volume. I know that it was just luck that he grabbed the volume dial and not the tuning dial, but I was impressed that he knew what actions he had to take to turn the music on and then to turn it up!

A real life baby

On Sunday of this past weekend, the two neighbor girls were over and they were playing house with my three boys. (This seems to a common theme when they come over) Nathan was the Dad, Leslie was the Mom, Nikki was the daughter, Darren was the puppy and Justin was of course the baby.

I was folding clothes while they were playing and so I would walk into their bedroom periodically to put clothes away or they would venture out into the room I was in. Justin kept giving me suffering looks like, "Please help me. I just want to be left alone."

Another step towards independence...

This past weekend Bruce and I received a letter from the school telling us how excited they are to have Nathan enrolled in school this upcoming year (just wait until they get to know him:) ). The letter stated that Loramie has all day, every other day kindergarten and Nathan would be going to school every Wednesday and Friday and alternating Monday's. It is a good thing they enclosed a schedule because with all the Holiday's (i.e. President's Day, MLK Day, Christmas) there are a few months that he only has a Monday class once that month.

Anyway, they had also sent a list of who is in his class. I recognized a few of the names from the pre-K classes that Nathan took this past spring. I was reminding Nathan of some of the kids so he could be familiar with some of his classmates. He gave me a (almost) condescending look and said in an annoyed, bored voice, "I know Mom."

He has a small class this year as there is currently 57 kids enrolled for the upcoming school year. I did not count, but there seem to be more boys than girls also.